Finance Coordinator

GECOTTI - Les Arcuriales

Lille, France

JOB DESCRIPTION

Reporting to: Programme Director

1. General

• Coordination of finance functions;
• Coordination of Finance Officers, allocation of tasks, planning, day-to-day guidance of the work carried out by the Finance Officers;
• Participation with the Programme Director and the Project Coordinator in the general management of the Permanent Secretariat;
• Coordination of recruitment and tasks of the trainees in coordination with the Managing Authority (called “Entrusted Entity” (EE), according to Article 60 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council).

2. Programme Implementation

• Main contact relating to administrative and financial issues with the Managing Authority (EE), the Certifying and Paying Authority, and the European Commission;
• Coordination and supervision of the audit trail implementation at programme level;
• Monitoring of the Programme budget (financial tables, ERDF follow up, N+3, audit headlines, certification of expenditure, etc.).

3. Project Development

• Coordination and supervision of the assistance given to individual applicants in the development of their project on administrative, management and financial matters (via guidelines, meetings, seminars, etc.).

4. Project Assessment

• Participation in the project assessment procedure: review of all project applications received, discussion with the assessors of each project's merits, coherent ranking list, etc.;
• Contribution to the preparation of relevant items for different meetings.

5. Project Implementation

• Advise and issue guidance to Finance Officers with a view to harmonising the standard applied to projects;
• Organization of the project implementation process (drafting Grant Offer Letters, processing payment claims, budget line and action plan modification, revised application form, etc.);
• Reviewing payment claim assessment report on individual projects and authorising the Certifying and Paying Authority to proceed with ERDF payments;
• Monitoring the state of progress of payment claims and related financial issues in general;
• Analysis of project modifications: budget line modifications, extensions, content modifications;
• Participation in meetings with problematic projects;
• Organisation of the inputs for tailored events (audit seminars).

6. Technical Assistance

• Coordination and monitoring of the TA budget (including approval of the monthly reports);
• Approval of all individual TA invoices;
• Liaison with the legal employer (GECOTTI) for all administrative and financial matters.

7. Basic requirements

• Degree and minimum ideally 5 to 10 years demonstrated experience in any field of relevance to the above tasks (accountancy, finance, business studies, etc.);
• 3 years Demonstrated experience in the management of an international team;
• Knowledge of EU law, institutions and policies, in particular the European Structural Funds financial regulations, State aid and the de minimis Regulations;
• Experience in EU-funded projects or programmes;
• High level of proficiency and fluency in English and French;
• Good communication and drafting skills;
• Excellent computer literacy (including MS Excel...);
• Excellent coordinating and leadership skills including both team and finance management;
• Flexible approach to work; prepared to travel and work irregular hours.

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS

• Applications should reach the Managing Authority (EE) by 03/07/2015at midnight. We will not consider any application sent beyond that deadline;
• A cover letter should be emailed along with your CV to the following email address only:europe@nordpasdecalais.fr. Those documents should be in English or in French. Please indicate in the subject line of your email the job position you are applying for;
• An individual email will be sent to all short-listed candidates by 06/07/2015at the latest. Candidates will be expected to confirm their participation to interviews by email return. They will then receive full information package (location, hotel...);
• Interviews will take in our offices located in Lille, France, on 20/07/2015, 21/07/2015,or 22/07/2015.Transport and accomadation costs will be reimbursed in compliance with the programme rules;
• All the candidates who have not been short-listed will be notified. Due to the large number of applications foreseen, we will not be able to provide further inidvidual feedback at that stage.

Confidentiality

Candiates are reminded that the selection is confidential and that all requests for information in relation to the selection should be emailed to: 
Mr Jean-Pierre LEGRAND – Project Director: jean-pierre.legrand@nordpasdecalais.fr.

Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities policy without distinction on the grounds of gender, racial, religion or belief, diability age or sexual orientation will be applied.

Terms and conditions of employment

• The working place is located at the office based in Lille, France;
• The position is based on a contract under French law;
• Contract will be made between the individual and the GECOTTI (employer), on behalf of the Région Nord - Pas de Calais, Managing Authority (EE) of the programme;
• The corresponding assignment is based on long term contract and is expected to start as soon as possible;
• The jobholder will be offered a grossmonthly salary starting from € 4702 (around € 3610 net before income tax).

THE URBAN INNOVATIVE ACTIONS PROGRAMME

1/ Background

One of the aims for the delivery of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) for the period 2014-2020 is to promote sustainable urban development. In particular, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) may support innovative actions in this area. This requires detailed rules in form of delegated acts supplementing the provisions set out in Regulation (EU) No 1301/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. One of most important new elements of the legislative framework in the period 2014-2020 is the introduction of innovative actions. These are implemented at the initiative of the Commission indirectly via the delegation of budget implementation tasks to the entities or bodies referred to in Article 58(1)(c) and Article 60 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The ERDF may support innovative actions in the area of sustainable urban development. Such actions shall include studies and pilot projects to identify or test new solutions which address issues that are related to sustainable urban development and are of relevance at Union level.

2/ What is in this new program

This is to identify or test new solutions to the challenges of sustainable urban development and of interest to the EU level. These innovative actions at the initiative of the Commission will finance studies and specific projects proposed by the urban authorities of more than 50 000 people throughout the European territory. (Cities, group or association of cities or urban authority).

3/ Budget and Programming

This program will have a budget of € 372 million for the period 2015-2024. Of these a lump sum contribution of 7% is to finance the management activities to be performed by the Managing Authority (EE) (and its secretariat) in charge of this initiative. A work program will be developed annually and approved by the Commission before the 31 of October.

4/ Projects

Calls for projects will be defined and agreed in the annual work program. The first call for projects could be launched in the second semester of 2015. Projects should be developed along the following lines : a high degree of innovation, good quality, with a strong partnership, transferable at the EU level ; results oriented and measurable. The projects will be implemented over a maxim period of 3 years. Project selection will be including on the basis of the recommendations of a panel of experts approved by the Commission.

Approximately 15 and 20 innovative actions will be funded each year from 2015 to 2021 on one or more topics proposed by the Commission. Each action can receive up to a maximum of 5 Million € ERDF co-financing. The co-financing rate will be 80% maximum, and payment terms are 50% on signing of the agreement, 30 % on the basis of an interim report and 20 % on the basis of a final report.

THE ROLE OF THE SECRETARIAT

The Managing Authority (EE) of the UIA initiative is the Région Nord-Pas de Calais based in Lille, France.

The EE has created an international legal body, called GECOTTI, to host 3 INTERREG Programmes in Lille and now this new programme. The legal body under private law is the legal employer of the members of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) Staff.

The secretariat assists the Managing Authority (EE), the External of Auditors, the Certifying Authority, in the implementation of their tasks and responsibilities.

The Mission of the secretariat is defined as follows:

Its mission is to deliver high quality, responsive and pro-active services to its main stakeholders: EE, Commission and projects partners.

To this end, the PS will:

• Ensure the coordination of the whole of the territorial animation;
• Participate, together with the Managing Authority (EE) and the whole partners of the programme to the framework plan for the programme’s communication and publicity;
• Be responsible for providing the secretariat for the external Auditors and for various work groups set up by the Managing Authority (EE);
• Be responsible for some audits of projects;
• Collect submitted projects, acknowledging their receipt and ensure their instruction by associating with it the services instructors of the partners of the programme and the experts;
• Draw up, the conventions signed by the Managing Authority (EE) relating to Europe’s commitment to contribute to and carry out administrative monitoring for accepted projects;
• Collecting biannual activity reports from the final beneficiaries and carrying out a physical project progress summary (presented in a format which incorporates monitoring, implementation and impact indicators), for submission to the secretariat in order to draw up the annual or final execution report;
• Set up a data collection system to ascertain how the programme is progressing, to aid programme management operating;
• Update the systems for computerised data management and encode the necessary elements for project monitoring;
• Manage the monitoring of programming and consolidate the progress reported in the annual and final execution report, and will draw up the financial part of these reports;
• Carry out a check that all documents relating to payment of the European share are in order, before submission by the Managing Authority (EE) to the Certifying Authority;
• Carry out the day to day implementation of the EE’s responsibilities foreseen in the AWP (Annual Work Programme and in the regulations (except specific procedures i.e. 1st level control...).